Today’s business world is more connected than ever via the web, but that doesn’t mean talent mobility is any less important. In fact, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that Americans collectively take 405 million long-distance business trips each year. Three-fourths of this business travel is less than 250 miles from the point of origin, but even those distances can have an impact of employee productivity. Whether your staff members are traveling by car or plane, it’s important that they stay productive while traveling. Here are four tips that will help to optimize business travel:

1. Encourage learning opportunities
It’s simply not possible to use every moment of a trip to be productive. Standing in line at security, dealing with shaky Wi-Fi at the airport and commuting to client meetings just do not afford good opportunities for getting work done. Nevertheless, downtime doesn’t have to be a complete waste of time, either. Encourage employees to make use of that time by studying up on relevant news, listening to industry podcasts or reading a book. These more relaxed tasks may even lead to an employee’s Next Big Idea.

2. Track everything
Employers can benefit from having as much data as possible. The ability to track itineraries, expenses, taxes and even immigration data is invaluable to the business. That’s why MSI has introduced TravelPointe™, a tool that will allow managers to not only track each of those important metrics, but also engage travelers at any point during the lifecycle of the business trip. The system eliminates redundancies and creates a standardized system to fully optimize talent mobility administration.